WEBVTT <Welcome back. There's a lot that's new this year for the Veridian Credit Union Smart Talk Connected Conversations series. It's going to be a new location, new time, new sponsors, and of course new speakers this year. So the series kicks off this Thursday that starts at 7 p.m. at Hoyt Sherman Place. With us today is Brooke Benschoter from Smart Talk to talk a little bit more about this. So first of all, kind of talk about the history of Smart Talk, because this is actually a pretty popular event that you have. Brooke: < <Yeah, Smart Talk's been around for more than a dozen years, and really what its intention was to provide women a night out, go with friends maybe go to dinner, go hear an inspirational speaker. And so this year, really the people that we brought to town have really amazing stories. They may not be names that you recognize, but they're, they definitely will leave you uplifted and inspired after you're done. We do have a lot of men that come to the series, and especially with our first speaker, the Master of Wine Jennifer Simonetti Bryan is coming on Thursday. Des Moines has a huge wine culture, and so we expect to see a lot of men in the audience, too. Kim: < <What does that "Master of Wine" title kind of mean? What is she expected to talk about? Brooke: < <Well, it's interesting. We're partnering with Gateway Market, and Abbey Hendricks, who is the wine lady at Gateway, and she was talking about how it's kind of like you're an Oscar winner in wine. You take a very intensive five-day test, and there are only 30 Masters of Wine in the U.S. So she's one of those people that you would rarely have the opportunity to meet, and Des Moines rarely sees them here. Kim: < <And I imagine this could be interesting to both men and women but also people who aren't really interested in wine or like wine. I imagine it could be very interesting. Brooke: < <Well, her story is that she left a six-figure financial, she was in the financial business, and she left a six- figure salary to follow her passion. She moved to London, and she followed her passion to become part of the wine industry. And now she's on television. She has a couple of books, but it's a really uplifting story of how she made that really tough choice to follow her heart. Kim: < <You've got a really great line- up of other speakers coming as well. Tell us a little bit about them. Brooke: < <We do. In February, on Feb. 4, which isn't too far away, we've got Dr. Anissa Ramirez coming. She is the woman who is really sparking STEM for girls and just bringing science to the masses. Then in March, we have Lisa Myers who worked in the White House, covering the White House for NBC for a couple of years, and then in April, we have Tina Brown who does the Daily Beast. Then in May, we have, this is awful, Joy Behar, who was on The View for a really long time, and she's a comedian in her own right. So that's our line-up. They're not people you always hear about, but they're people that have great stories, and that's the goal. Kim: < <Yeah, I think those will be very interesting to hear from because it seems they cover so many things and again would have good stories. You're saying it's not too late to buy tickets, even for this Thursday's event. They can still come to that Smart Talk. Brooke: < <No, there's a couple things that are going on. One is, if you want to come and meet Jennifer, if you're a wine lover, you can meet her at a reception Gateway Market is having at 5:45 p.m. and you have to make reservations through Gateway Market, but then the show starts at 7. There are still tickets for the whole series available, but there are also single tickets for Thursday's event if you just want to hear the wine part and hear Jennifer. We're at 7 o'clock. Hoyt Sherman Place box office, you can also buy them through Ticketmaster, and you'll be able to walk up that night and buy them at the box office. Kim: < < So plenty of opportunities to still get tickets, even for this Thursday. Brooke: < <Absolutely, and we're actually going to start selling a three- pack for the last three speakers for those who have that kind of TV bend or are really interested in TV people, starting Monday. Kim: < <Thank you, Brooke. We'll be right back.